Quote Originally Posted by Fearlessbaby View Post
OMG!! THis is fantastic- I had no idea we could get paid holidays!! I'll have to revise my handbook ASAP!! (I like the 2 weeks paid holidays) But are the days set or do you give notice to the parents and if so , how much notice is fair? Also, if you take sick days, how much notice is proper?
I would totally check with your local area if this is the NORM and than weighing the supply and demand in your area to see if you can be a pioneer in doing something outside that norm fee wise ... being new to childcare it is often challenging to get clients to take a chance to sign on in the first place IME if you put things in your contract that make your fees 'above the average' in your area you could be creating an additional challenge for you ... I charge more than the norm in my area too and starting out I had to lower my initially planned fees considerably to get people biting ~ I am still high end of the norm for my region but had to stick with a fee that the market could bare so to speak!

Also be VERY careful in how you WORD stat holiday, vacation and sick day policies in your contract because entitlement to stat holiday pay, vacation, and personal days are 'employed' criteria verses 'self employed' criteria for CRA ... if you do not word it carefully you can run into trouble with CRA trying to decide you were 'employed' by clients and therefore have no right to right off your expenses and so forth. I believe the CCPRN has some resources on wording to avoid trouble!

I personally choose to offer clients a choice between paying my normal weekly fee of $X.XX a week and than they do not pay me when I am closed for vacation or sick days OR they can choose option B which is 8% lower and pay a consistent weekly fee for their space which includes closure for 10 vacation days and 10 personal days ... this way it is clear I am SELF EMPLOYED because the initial option does not include paid vacation nor sick days ~ I am just offering clients a second 'consistent' payment option for my service by dividing the space they are occupying by 52 weeks instead of 48 of the initial plan depending on how clients want to budget!